Module 6 of 10
What you are going to do
A future tense you already know, because it is aller plus a verb.
French has a proper future tense and you do not need it yet. For everything you will say at this level, aller plus a verb in its plain form does the job: je vais manger, on va voir, nous allons commencer. It is exactly the English going to, built out of a verb you already learned in module two, which makes it the best-value structure in the course.
Two details. The negative wraps aller and leaves the second verb alone — je ne vais pas venir, not je ne vais venir pas. And the time word usually goes first or last, not in the middle: demain je vais travailler, or je vais travailler demain, but not je vais demain travailler. Collect four or five time expressions while you are here — demain, ce soir, la semaine prochaine, dans deux jours — because a future sentence without one is rarely what you meant.
Played by your device’s own French voice. It is a synthetic voice, not a recording of a teacher — close enough to learn the shape of a word, not close enough to copy exactly.
- Je vais mangerI am going to eat
- Tu vas sortir ce soir ?Are you going out this evening?
- On va voirWe will see
- Je vais rentrer tardI am going to get home late
- Nous allons commencerWe are going to start
- Demain, je vais travaillerTomorrow I am going to work
- Je ne vais pas venirI am not going to come — ne and pas wrap aller, not the second verb
- La semaine prochaineNext week
aller + plain verb is all the future you need. The negative wraps aller, and the time word goes at one end.